Fake Law Firms, Bogus DMCA Threats, and the “Dead Internet”. Why AI threatens to automate Copyright Trolling.
Hey All! While working on my final paper, I stumbled over an interesting article published by ArsTechnica that has raised my eyebrows, and I am sure it may raise yours as well. Eric Smith, a writer based in the United States recently “received a ‘DMCA Copyright Infringement Notice’ in late March from “Commonwealth Legal,” representing […]
Bonus Lecture: “All Media is Social Media”
For the masochists among you, here is the theoretical piece promised. Contents and timelines for the video are:
Week 11 Spring 2024
Slides & video below. Additional video of Jonathan Zittrain’s wonderful and humorous talk on memes which perhaps fits with the end of our course (albeit at a decidedly odd angle).
Child Rights and Copyright Wrongs
We live in a world where children are increasingly engaging in creative expression, we must address therefore address the vulnerabilities they face in the realm of intellectual property. From original artwork to innovative storytelling, children are contributing immensely to our cultural landscape, and this is being done increasingly through social media platforms. Yet, amidst their […]
Week 10 Spring 2024
Slides & video below…
Imagining a World Without Copyright
“Copyright is usually presented as a balance between promoting the public interest in the encouragement and dissemination of work of the arts and intellect and obtaining just reward for the creator” -“Binnie J Theberge As set out in Theberge, Copyright in Canada (and internationally) is built upon the fundamental assumption that the user and creator are two distinct […]
‘Free’ cash from social media: but at what cost?
The recent emergence of Temu, a rapidly growing online marketplace originating from China, has stirred controversy and raised concerns over data privacy and user consent. Promising ‘free’ cash incentives for new sign-ups and referrals, Temu has garnered significant attention on social media platforms, with users sharing screenshots of payments ranging from £50-£100. The site spends […]
Human Expression in EDM
Following the insightful presentations of last Friday, and inspired by a previous class debate on the intersection of AI and EDM, I wanted to share my take on EDM and how it is a genre driven by culture, human emotion, and social movements. Despite how it can be perceived as a genre, EDM isn’t merely […]
Big Fat Copyright Infringer
If you have not seen the 2002 film “Big Fat Liar,” you are surely missing out! It revolves around a young boy who tells an elaborate lie to cover up his tardiness for school, only to find himself caught up in a web of deception. The plot revolves around 14-year-old Jason Shepherd, an incorrigible liar living […]
The Ethical Ambiguity of Online File Sharing
Introduction Throughout this course, as the name ‘Copyright and Social Media’ suggests, we have focused on the internet, technology, and various legal and ethical issues that arise from their use. At the crux of modern technology we see today, is the desire to share information and ideas. Peer-to-peer online file-sharing platforms, like Torrentz, UTorrent, and […]
News of the Week(s)
This is the more or less definitive version of News of the Week since our last in-class session. Will highlight a few trends in class this week or next, time permitting…
Copyright Conflicts in AI Generated Music
by Brittney, Jack, Jake and Rob. In our presentation this week we will be discussing the tension between AI and human creators in copyright, with a specific focus on music. We will examine how some early experiments with novel approaches to music are a precursor to current AI approaches to music creation. As part of […]
Week 9 Spring 2024
Slides & video below. Unfortunately, the lecture capture system glitched somehow and did not record the first ten or so minutes of the class…
Can Social Media Trends Qualify for Copyright Protection?
Hi everyone, I am looking to explore if social media trends can qualify for copyright protection under Canadian Copyright law and the role that contractual licensing agreement plays in this. I have attached the introductory portion of my paper but I will appreciate your thoughts and comments. INTRODUCTION: There is little doubt that while our […]
Trump’s Truth… (Social)
Hi everyone, Saw this news article today and thought that it might be interesting for people in this class! If anyone remembers, former president Donald Trump launched a social media called “Truth Social” back in 2021. It has been called a “twitter clone” that is a alt-tech social media platform. As of today, it has […]
Data as Copyright
Good morning everyone, Sharvani and myself are going to be presenting this Friday on “Data as copyright”. This post will provide a brief rundown on what we will be talking about. Code as Law– Borrowing from Lawrence Lessig’s argument that “code is law in the cyberspace”, this segment will present the importance of “code” and […]
Podcast on AI and Elections
I listened to an interesting podcast on the implications of generative AI in elections last week that I thought people in this class might enjoy. While the podcast makes note of the benefits of generative AI to elections, specifically around generative AI’s capacity to reduce campaign costs, it mostly focuses on the threats that generative […]
Week 8 Spring 2024
Slides & video below…
“Canadian game ‘Canuckle’ says Wordle owner hasn’t sent it copyright notice yet”
Many of us play the daily New York Times games on our devices, but did you know that their Wordle game has copyright protections? According to the linked article, “the New York Times filed several Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices to developers of Wordle-inspired games, saying many of the alleged clones infringe on […]
Copyright Trolling on Youtube.
Hi All! Vy and I are working on two very similar papers, and have decided to combine our work for this presentation. Our topic is copyright trolling on Youtube. Here’s a brief overview of what we will be talking about. What Is a Troll? A Copyright Troll (“Troll”) is an actor within copyright regimes of […]
Deepfakes in Canadian Law Presentation
Please click link below in the browser to see the presentation! https://allard-law423-001-2024.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2024/03/Deepfakes-in-Canadian-Law-Michelle-Ching.pdf
Data Back
Reading the e-book #DataBack: Asserting and supporting indigenous data sovereignty, really made me reconsider much of what I’ve thought about and known about AI technology. In doing so, I wanted to take a step back and look at the broader system and advancement of technology in general and see how this might impact Indigenous communities. […]
Crime Prediction
The article titled “Crime Prediction Keeps Society Stuck in the Past” (linked below) which accurately displays the problematic issue with predictive technology. Reading about Robert McDaniel’s story really made me question the use of AI in situations like this, especially when people’s freedoms are at risk. The article states that predictive technology was used to […]
Dating Apps & Intellectual Property
In anticipation of our presentation coming up on Friday, Scott and I have compiled a few brief readings for your perusal. We will be covering some specific IP topics in addition to the ones contemplated below. These readings are really just meant to get you thinking about what you generally think about dating apps and […]
Week 7 Spring 2024
Slides & video below…
Found an amazing resource for cases on “fair use” in the USA!
Hey everyone! I found an amazing resource for finding “fair use” cases in the USA. It’s called the US Copyright Office Fair Use Index: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/fair-index.html You can search by jurisdiction or category of the issue (like parody, internet, film, etc) and they are all in condensed down case briefs. Maybe you know about this resource […]
Careers in IP Law Event – Please join if you can!
Hopefully some shameless event promotion on here is not an issue… the topic certainly relates to our course! I am going to be co-moderating this panel titled “Lights, Camera, Law! Careers in Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law” on Thursday March 14 at 12:30pm in Room 104. We have a fabulous panel of various IP and […]
Two Cases from Internet Courts in China concerning Copyright Aspects of AI-Generated Content
There has been a significant amount of debate about whether AI-generated works should enjoy copyright protection or not. Generally, a work may enjoy copyright protection if it is Even if the same argument is made for AI-generated content, the question remains as to whom will the copyright protection be attributed. The programmer? The AI itself […]
Video Games as Social Media
Online video games, particularly those with subscription models, create social spaces for players to interact, engage and play with each other online. The communities and interactions that spawn from these spaces often contain and mimic many of the types of interactions present in traditional forms of social media. With more explicit examples like miiverse, to […]
Week 6 Spring 2024
Slides and video below…
Week 5 Spring 2024
Slides, copyright flowcharts & video below…
Copyright Issues Relating to TikTok
From January to June 2023, TikTok received over 189,000 copyright removal requests, which resulted in the successful removal of 60% of those videos (i.e., 113,000 videos). While TikTok requires users to submit requests to have copyright infringing content removed, YouTube offers a range of automated tools that proactively limit copyright infringement on its platform. The […]
Week 4 Spring 2024
Slides & video below…
Developments in EU Copyright and AI Regulation
Hi all, Tomorrow in class we will be doing our presentation on Developments in EU Copyright Law and AI Regulation. This news article introduces part of what we will be talking about. If you have time to read it ahead of tomorrow that would be great. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/08/eu-agrees-historic-deal-with-worlds-first-laws-to-regulate-ai Best, Amy and Mads
Week 3 Spring 2024
Slides & video below…
Week 2 Spring 2024
Slides & video below…
Interesting dissertation of traditional Indigenous knowledge and its intersections with IP law
Hello fellow classmates! The author of this dissertation, Greg Young-ing, was a professor of mine during my early undergrad years at UBCO (admittedly those were quite a few years ago now..). As a non-Indigenous person who was taught from a highly euro-centric perspective for much of my educational life, Greg’s Indigenous Studies class had a […]
Week 1 Spring 2024
Slides & video below…
Welcome to Cohort 1
It’s a wonderful privilege for us to teach a new course on a very timely subject. We look forward to meeting everyone in the class and to the adventure of building the course with you. Rowan & Jon
